Europe's top referees are in Turkey this week for the annual UEFA winter courses – with preparations for UEFA Euro 2012 and the knockout stages of UEFA's club competitions the focal point, as well as introducing international newcomers to their responsibilities at European level. UEFA has decided to hold the 20th UEFA Advanced Course for Top Referees and 21st UEFA Introductory Course for International Referees in the Mediterranean city of Antalya. Winter courses were previously held there in 2001.

Europe's football governing body organizes two main referee courses a year: a summer gathering where match officials are primed for the new season and given specific instructions for club and national-team duties and a winter get-together designed to guide the referees into the second half of the campaign. The winter introductory course serves to welcome new international referees to the tasks ahead. FIFA's list of European international referees this year features 43 new names who are representing 28 European national associations and the introductory course will be their first official experience of the international circuit. Twenty-four of the newcomers have already attended courses at the UEFA Centre of Refereeing Excellence (CORE) in Nyon, which is preparing promising young officials for the future. "Their preparation for officiating at UEFA matches will start here," said UEFA's chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina. "Their first appointments as international referees will include youth mini-tournaments or the qualification rounds of the UEFA Europa League or UEFA Champions League." The FIFA novices undertake an extensive medical check-up and take the FIFA fitness test. For the first time, they will have their visual abilities tested by specialized sports optometrists. With referees needing to maintain focus and concentration amid the high pace of a modern elite game, it is essential that they are able to fix their vision on incidents, to focus on close or moving objects and react to movement around them. The newcomers will also receive various instructions from the UEFA administration on matters such as writing reports and how to conduct themselves as UEFA representatives at matches. With English the common UEFA refereeing language, members of the UEFA Referees Committee will interview the match officials to evaluate their working knowledge of English. Furthermore, the introductory course will contain presentations by Referees Committee members and video sessions analyzing specially prepared footage from UEFA games over the past year. Participants will also learn about specific training sessions, including exercises relevant to their movement during a match.

For the advanced course, UEFA has invited the 22 elite category referees and 17 elite development category referees, plus a small selection of first category referees. In addition, five Turkish FIFA referees who are not members of these categories have been invited, to bring the total of delegates to 56. Among this number are the 12 match officials chosen by the UEFA Referees Committee last December to take charge of matches at UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine this summer, as well as others who will be present at the tournament as additional assistant referees and fourth officials. "Basically, the referees selected will follow the normal preparation that UEFA has for the elite referees", said Collina. This means that the winter course in Antalya will be followed by the referees resuming their UEFA competition duties in mid-February. The Euro officials will then attend a workshop in Warsaw at the end of April and beginning of May, and will also be given specific preparation by UEFA's expert team under the leadership of referee fitness expert Werner Helsen. Referees in the advanced group will have to pass an intermittent recovery fitness check and will get instructions from the Referees Committee members concerning their assignments in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League knockout stages, in particular with a view to achieving consistency and uniformity in decision-making.

Up to 1986, the question of who are the all-time world‘s best referees could only be answered hypothetically. The advent of the IFFHS official vote for the world‘s best referee and with it the resultant annual world ranking of the referees from 1987 created the necessary objective criteria. Consequently, establishing the world‘s best referee over longer period can be made from 1987. Each year many different jurors (countries) have taken part in the vote and, in addition, the jurors in the early years voted for the top three places (3 points to 1 point) and later for the top four places (4 points to 1 point). So it would not be possible to simply add the points awarded in the annual votes. The determination of the World's Best Referee for the last Quarter of a Century (1987-1911) was carried out analogous as those of The World's Best Referee of the First Decade, so there is a uniform system for the future. From the annual world ranking of the referees (as a result of the world vote) the IFFHS will take into consideration the "Top 20" for each year and allocate points to each place. So the first-placed receives 20 points, the second-placed 19 points, the third-placed 18 points... and a point for twentieth place. If the annual world ranking comprises more than 20 referees, then the referees from 21st place onwards receive no points. If the annual world ranking comprises fewer than 20 referees (based on the fixed rules), no points will be awarded for the unoccupied places. Adding the points from the individual years provides a world ranking for the period 1987-2011. The first-placed referee of this final ranking for the period is The World‘s Best Referee of the last Quarter of a Century (1987-2011).Italian Pierluigi Collina is the World’s Best Referee of the last Quarter of a Century (1987-2011), ahead of German Markus Merk. After the two next best-placed Danes Kim Milton Nielsen and Peter Mikkelsen, Colombian Oscar Ruiz reached position 5 and is therefore South America’s best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011), ahead of Uruguayan Jorge Larrionda and Argentinian Juan Carlos Loustau. In the "Top 10" of the last quarter of a century there are six referees who never became World’s Best Referee of the Year, but provided world-class performances over a long period of time. Mexican Arturo Brizio Carter is North and Central America’s best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011), ahead of his countryman Benito Armando Archundia. Asia's best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011) has become Uzbek Ravshan Irmatov, ahead of Ali Bujsaim from the UAE. Africa's best referee of the last quarter of a century (1987-2011) is Moroccan Said Belqola, ahead of Egyptian Gamal Ghandour. The best referee from Oceania in these 25 years was Australian Mark Shield.

Mexican FIFA referee Marco Rodriguez, also known as “Chiquimarco”, has been suspended by the Mexican Referees Committee for five matches following his performance in the Mexican Apertura 2011 Final between Tigers and Santos, where he sent off 3 players and handed out 7 yellow cards. In min. 56, Rodriguez showed two yellow cards simultaneously, one for Hector Mancilla and one for Carlos Morales.

The general secretary of the Mexican Football Federation, Decio de Maria, said that "showing two yellow cards simultaneously is not considered in the Laws of the Game and Rodriguez was not supposed to do it. He was suspended by the Referees Committee for not following the rules. I cannot tell you how long is his suspension, but Rodriguez did not referee in the first two rounds of the championship and I can assure you that he will be out for a few more games”. Mario Trejo, Puma’s director, who attended a meeting at the Mexican Football Federation, confirmed that the suspension is for 5 matches: "It is very clear that Rodriguez got sanctioned for his two yellow cards. I think he is out for five games. He is one of our top referees, but sometimes he makes mistakes".
Marco Rodriguez is known for being a very strict referee who gives out many yellow and red cards. At 38, he already took part in two FIFA World Cups (2006, 2010) and currently is one of the two Mexican referee candidates for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Three Bulgarian match officials banned from soccer for life faked their identities to officiate a friendly game between Werder Bremen and AZ Alkmaar, last week in Turkey, according to the Bulgarian referees' association web site.

Luchezar Yonov, stripped of his rights a year ago, presented himself as another referee, Raycho Raychev, from the eastern town of Sliven, at last Wednesday’s game in the Turkish resort of Belek, the statement said. His assistants at the game, Emil Mitev and Petar Taralov, also pretended to be other people. The real Raychev told the 7 Dni Sport newspaper he was "indignant" his name had been exploited in such a way and threatened to sue the impostor. "I will take all necessary measures to clear my name," Raichev told the Bulgarian football referees association's web site: "What they did is so sneaky."
Luchezar Yonov and his assistants Petar Tarulov and Emil Mitev were among the referees who were suspended in 2011 for officiating at international matches in Argentina and Venezuela while they were subject to temporary bans for suspected match-fixing, the newspaper reported. "This story convinces us the decision we took last year was right," Bulgarian Football Union referees committee chairman Kostadin Kostadinov told state television BNT. Bundesliga club Werder came back from a goal down to beat their Dutch opponents 2-1. "I read some reports and they said there were 10 minutes of added time, a controversial penalty and a free kick in the ninth minute of added time", said Kostadinov. The Bulgarian referees association has urged the BFU to inform UEFA about the incident.

Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai was voted the world’s best referee in 2011. Last year, at 35, Kassai became the youngest referee appointed for the UEFA Champions League final, FC Barcelona – Manchester United. The 2011 UCL Final followed the other two highlights of his career, the 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final, Germany – Spain, and the 2008 Olympic Games final, Argentina – Nigeria. He has already been appointed by UEFA for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

Turkish football fans were left shocked when one of the nation's favourite pundits suffered a heart attack during a live broadcast. Former FIFA referee Ahmet Cakar became visibly unwell while talking about a match-fixing scandal during a TV show and keeled over onto the desk to the shock of his fellow panellists. He suffered a heart attack and was immediately taken to the hospital, where was reported to be in a stable condition. Cakar went through another difficult moment in 2004, when he was shot five times in his groin and abdomen as he stepped out of his car in Mecidiyekoy, a busy area of Istanbul. He survived and fully recovered after surgery. Ahmet Cakar refereed at Euro 1996 in England, as well as the 1993 FIFA U-20 World Cup final, Brazil – Ghana, and a Champions League semi-final, Bayern – Ajax, in 1995.

Last year, Cakar claimed that Galatasaray's elimination of Manchester United from the UEFA Champions League in 1993 was aided by a corrupted match official. Ahmet Cakar said that he witnessed a Galatasaray official offer the match referee, Kurt Rothlisberger, a bribe over the telephone the evening before the UEFA Champions League second leg against Manchester United in Istanbul. Cakar used his twitter account to claim the club bribed referee Kurt Rothlisberger and said Sami Colgecen, a Galatasaray executive, set up the deal. Rothlisberger sent off Eric Cantona at the end of the match and the Manchester United star claimed that the official had been bribed. At the time, Cantona told L’Equipe: “I am certain that referees have been bought in the European Champions Cup and I ask myself whether Mr. Rothlisberger had not also been bought”. The club have rejected the allegation made by Ahmet Cakar and have instigated legal proceedings against him. Cakar's claim was added to by another Turkish football official, Ahmet Guvener, a former president of the Turkish Referee Committee. "I heard from a club official many times that he had bribed Rothlisberger. I do not know whether he actually did that or not, but I witnessed him saying that", Guvener told the Turkish newspaper, Sabah.
Kurt Rothlisberger took charge of the UEFA Champions League final between Olympique Marseille and AC Milan in the same year. In 1994 he was sent home from the FIFA World Cup after admitting he should have awarded Belgium a penalty in a 3-2 second-round defeat. He was later given a life ban from sport after allegations that he offered to influence another UEFA Champions League game between Grasshopper Zurich and Auxerre. Rothlisberger denied the charge, but failed in a subsequent appeal to get the ban reversed.

A Danish football fan has been ordered to pay 250,000 euro in damages for attacking German referee Herbert Fandel during Denmark's Euro 2008 qualifier against Sweden in June 2007. The 33-year-old Ronni Noervig must pay the sum to the Danish Football Association (DBU), the High Court in Copenhagen ruled. The fan had appealed against a 2009 decision by the Copenhagen City Court which had ordered him to pay the 125,000 euro, but the High Court doubled the amount. "The person in question's acts represent the biggest attack on Danish football's integrity", Jim Stjerne Hansen, secretary-general of the DBU. "His violent assault on the referee cost us an almost spotless reputation within the soccer world and 2.2 million Danish crowns”.

The match in June, 2007, at the Parken stadium in Copenhagen was abandoned in the final minutes when the fan rushed on to the field and tried to hit German referee Herbert Fandel (photo) who had just sent off Denmark's Christian Poulsen and awarded the visitors a penalty kick at the score 3-3. Fandel abandoned the match and UEFA later awarded Sweden a 3-0 victory. The defeat meant that Denmark failed to qualify for Euro 2008.
The DBU had sought damages after it was fined by UEFA and Denmark were banned from playing their next two qualifiers at Parken. The court's award was lower than the DBU's claim because the court deemed the number of spectators who would have attended a match against Lichtenstein to be lower than the DBU's estimate. In 2007, the fan was convicted of attempted assault and trespassing and given a suspended 30-day jail sentence, which was reduced to 20 days on appeal. The fan admitted he was drunk and entered the pitch illegally, but rejected the violence charge.

Effective 1 January 2012, FIFA changed the structure and updated the composition of the Referees Committee for the next four years. The new committee comprises 28 people, including 10 former World Cup referees (Batres, Kamikawa, Lacarne, Larrionda, Mikkelsen, Ruiz) and assistant referees (Listkiewicz, Mandi, Ntagungira, Vergara). For the first time ever, there are also three female members (Jonsson, Elovirta, Leleu).